A glance at the World of the past, and an educated guess of the World of the future.

Precambrian

Archaeozoic

5 billion years ago. The Earth's crust is formed, green algae releases oxygen into the atmosphere.

Proterozoic

2.5 billion years ago. Bacteria and protozoans feed on the algae.

Palaeozoic

Cambrian

570 million years ago. The age of marine invertebrates, shellfish and urchins.

Ordovician

500 million years ago. Primitive fish, seaweed and fungi emerge.

Silurian

425 million years ago. Shellfish are dominant. Fungi have also evolved into plants on land.

Devonian

405 million years ago. The Age of fish prevails. The first true amphibians form, along with insects and some small animals.

Mississippian

345 million years ago. The age of amphibians begins with shallow seas, lowlands and fern-covered forests.

Pennsylvanian

310 million years ago. Warm climate, swamps, coal forests, the first reptiles evolve from amphibians.

Permian

280 million years ago. Coniferous forests arise, a large number of marine invertebrates go extinct.

Mesozoic

Triassic

230 million years ago. Active volcanoes, the age of dinosaurs begins.

Jurassic

190 million years ago. Mammals emerge from small reptiles, dinosaurs get larger.

Cretaceous

140 million years ago. The last of the dinosaurs emerge. Placental mammals emerge including early primates.

Cenozoic

Tertiary

65 million years ago. The dinosaurs are all gone, birds and mammals take over. Time period divided into epochs:

Palaeocene: 65 million years ago. Age of small mammals, forests and deserts paint the continents.

Eocene: 54 million years ago. The dawn of recent life, high sea-levels, island continents, large herbivores emerge.

Oligocene: 38 million years ago. Large herbivores dominate, which in turn begins the emergence of carnivorous mammals.

Miocene: 23 million years ago. The continents settle as we know them today. This is the longest epoch in the Cenozoic.

Pliocene: 5 million years ago. The first apes emerge. This is also the age most modern mammals we know today took root.

Quarternary

Begins 2 million years ago. Modern days begin. Humans have evolved from apes in the Pleistocene epoch (the Ice Age) to today when humans dominate the Earth.

Metazoic

Posthomic

Believed to be 14 million years ahead. Humans are extinct, the age of large mammals begins. Extensive forests, very large trees, long-lived fruiting and flowering plants, large, swift-moving, highly-intelligent mammals emerge and beat out most modern mammals.

Thermocepian

Believed to be 60 million years ahead. The last of the large, highly intelligent mammals emerge. Large continents collide together.